Elden ring!

[wankerness]

I was having a hard time, too. I finally caved and used Bloodfiend's Arm and charged R2 his ass into oblivion.. I was able to pretty much loop him into getting staggered and kept using Endure ash of war to tank hits while R2-ing him. Felt cheesey. I think this DLC really favors STR/ARC builds or strength in general. Bosses barely give you openings so you want to make the most of your damage/poise in those small openings imo.

Not coincidentally, they nerfed this weapon bigtime in the most recent patch. I never tried it! I'm also sad I never tried the infamous busted build with the perfume weapons that could literally 2-shot bosses, but I guess I should be proud I didn't resort to complete cheese for anything. Just moderate cheese with a pokey bleed weapon and huge shield on the last boss, and mimic +rock sling on most of the others.

 

[Moongrum]

Not coincidentally, they nerfed this weapon bigtime in the most recent patch. I never tried it! I'm also sad I never tried the infamous busted build with the perfume weapons that could literally 2-shot bosses, but I guess I should be proud I didn't resort to complete cheese for anything. Just moderate cheese with a pokey bleed weapon and huge shield on the last boss, and mimic +rock sling on most of the others.

It's still really strong imo. Proccing bleed with a heavy attack is still satisfying for me lol.

 

[wankerness]

It's still really strong imo. Proccing bleed with a heavy attack is still satisfying for me lol.

From what I was seeing online people were saying it's still very good, but like, it went from outright busted (you would proc bleed with ONE charged R2) to still good but reasonable (you now need two full charged R2s to proc bleed). So up to like 50% bleed buildup reduction on it?

 

[Moongrum]

So up to like 50% bleed buildup reduction on it?

According to the scientists on reddit, it's even less than that!

 

[slim231990]

This is the only game I've had to watch tutorial videos for every fucking thing I do, and yet I can't get enough. Still don't know wtf is going on story wise, guess I'll have to watch a YT video on that too.

 

[TedEH]

The dragoncrest greatshield talisman and some of the new higher level spell damage resist talismans were very useful depending on boss. It sounds like you are already using those.

To give you an idea, this is what I'm working with currently. I'm sure it's not ideal in a bunch of ways, but it's mostly working for me. Not shown: SkiDoo Tree = 11, Revered Ash = 7.

 

[wankerness]

To give you an idea, this is what I'm working with currently. I'm sure it's not ideal in a bunch of ways, but it's mostly working for me.
View attachment 146378

What are the first two talismans? I know they're both resistance ones, but which ones?

I think the "mild resistance to all damage types" one is probably not worth using on any bosses in this expansion as long as you found the new 20% ones, but other than that everything makes sense to me. Which two weapons are those? Are they with the "quality" scaling (scale equally with str/dex)? Actually I don't even remember if that's an option in this game, I know it was in dark souls 3.

 

[TedEH]

What are the first two talismans? I know they're both resistance ones, but which ones?

Pearldrake+2, Dragoncrest+2, Arsenal Charm+1, Erdtrees Favor+1

Weapons are Quality Uchi 25 and Quality Backhand 25. Also carrying around one of the Great Katanas and a Pulley Bow.

 

[wankerness]

Pearldrake+2, Dragoncrest+2, Arsenal Charm+1, Erdtrees Favor+1

Weapons are Quality Uchi 25 and Quality Backhand 25. Also carrying around one of the Great Katanas and a Pulley Bow.

You might be better off putting blood on the uchigatana and dumping future points into arcane, I wouldn't be surprised if on bosses that don't resist bleed that would immediately be a big damage increase even without changing any of your current stats. Seppuku is considered the best bleed AOW generally but I usually don't like to use it since it makes you take more damage while it's up.

 

[TedEH]

Maaaaaaaaaan the gear makes so much difference. I forgot I had Rivers of Blood, so I swapped to that. Swapped to Gaius's Armor to lower the weight a little. Replaced the two talismans that gave me extra equip load with Outer God Heirloom (boosts Arcane by 5) and Radagon's Soreseal (boosts everything at the cost of some damage negation).

Aaaaaaand took down Messmer in the first attempt with the new layout. Maybe it helps that I'm more calm today. Made sure to have Rivers equipped before bringing out the mimic, and between the two it just piiiiiiiiles on the damage. I guess that's that.

 

[TedEH]

Have you considered becoming an Elden Ring Consultant?

 

[MFB]

I cracked into the Abyssal woods the other night and got a chance to do some more exploring in there today, and lo and behold, there's actually nothing worth value! I'm still trying to figure out the fucking path to Midra, I think I need to go up and drop down to open the manse, but who knows anymore.

I also took out some of the dragons on Jagged Peak and Cerulean Coast since I opened that up; for whatever reason, my brain assumed you couldn't jump on the rock peaks in the river but you most definitely can. So I opened up that whole southern part of the map, just to gain some extra stuff and increase my blessings/levels/etc. That dragon katana is honestly an OP gimmick tool, it rips thru ANY dragon in several charged hits, so I'm honestly kind of not THAT worried about Bayle now knowing that we'll have two of them + Igon in there.

 

[wankerness]

I cracked into the Abyssal woods the other night and got a chance to do some more exploring in there today, and lo and behold, there's actually nothing worth value! I'm still trying to figure out the fucking path to Midra, I think I need to go up and drop down to open the manse, but who knows anymore.

I also took out some of the dragons on Jagged Peak and Cerulean Coast since I opened that up; for whatever reason, my brain assumed you couldn't jump on the rock peaks in the river but you most definitely can. So I opened up that whole southern part of the map, just to gain some extra stuff and increase my blessings/levels/etc. That dragon katana is honestly an OP gimmick tool, it rips thru ANY dragon in several charged hits, so I'm honestly kind of not THAT worried about Bayle now knowing that we'll have two of them + Igon in there.

Abyssal Woods has 3 fragments (two in a church) and a medium size dungeon with possibly the coolest boss in the DLC.

 

[TedEH]

Cerulean Coast since I opened that up; for whatever reason, my brain assumed you couldn't jump on the rock peaks in the river but you most definitely can.

I just found that yesterday too. I actually think that section is kinda clever. It's a game that thrives on exploration, so it's a good "hey I wonder if I can.... oh hey I can!" kind of moment, with a giant reward of all new stuff to explore. I'm still missing the map for all that stuff in that area though. Seems like the last part of the map is deliberately progress gated maybe?

 

[MFB]

I just found that yesterday too. I actually think that section is kinda clever. It's a game that thrives on exploration, so it's a good "hey I wonder if I can.... oh hey I can!" kind of moment, with a giant reward of all new stuff to explore. I'm still missing the map for all that stuff in that area though. Seems like the last part of the map is deliberately progress gated maybe?

It's really far south but you should see the icon on the map to get it; I had a bunch of bloodstains at the waterfall before jumping off originally, and a message saying not to, and nothing saying it was BS, which is why I srcond guessed it.

 

[TedEH]

Yeah, I can see the little spot on the map that implies where it is, but have yet to come across a path to get there.

 

[MFB]

Yeah, I can see the little spot on the map that implies where it is, but have yet to come across a path to get there.

If you've already gotten to the Cerulean Coast, it's just a straight run south from the site of grace? You'll have to fight a boss in between, but it's nothing you haven't already fought and can't handle, more an inconvenience then anything.

If you HAVEN'T unlocked that, follow the river south, do some handy platforming and make your way down and then you can run south to get it.

 

[MFB]

Finished the quest for Ymir, as I FINALLY found the entrance to the "first" finger ruins you're supposed to go to, even though the other one seems WAY more obvious to find first. He even dunks on you if you ring the other one first since it doesn't match the map he provides, and then he gives you the map for the one you just found; so you're still stuck trying to look at this teeny tiny ass map on screen to figure out what the boxes line up with - and spoiler: it's under part of the map you probably can't see

But anywho, his fight was a big let down, the two invaders weren't bad - only took one hit from the second one, the cold chick who won't talk to me in the Manus - but Ymir cornered himself and I went full Rocky 3 and just beat his ass blow for blow. Metyr reminded me of something out of Bloodborne more than ER/DS.

I also found one of the Death Rite birds at Cerulean Coast, or maybe Charro's Hidden Grave? That name will never not be funny to see in game. I also found the entrance to Midras Manse, so that's on the agenda for tomorrow.

Oh yeah, I killed Bayle too. Dude had more health than expected even with what people said; my charged AOW hit for ~3K and it still took probably two dozen to kill him. Igon straight sucked ass, no idea what he did besides grandstand and act like he was hot shit while me and mimic ACTUALLY killed him. Design wise he reminds me a bit of Bahamut from FF, and the OG Diablo, kind of tough to get the timing down on him, he had very long buildups for what I thought would be much shorter. But he's dead so it doesn't really matter now anyways .

 

[narad]

Oh yeah, I killed Bayle too. Dude had more health than expected even with what people said; my charged AOW hit for ~3K and it still took probably two dozen to kill him. Igon straight sucked ass, no idea what he did besides grandstand and act like he was hot shit while me and mimic ACTUALLY killed him.

Sometimes taking aggro and staying alive is the real heroism.

 

[MFB]

Sometimes taking aggro and staying alive is the real heroism.

That's the thing, I don't think he really did either; I don't recall seeing a health bar for him even pop up (although with NPC summons it might just stay above their head and not display like mimic) and I know myself and mimic took a decent amount of hits/dodging, so I really have no idea how long he survived.